calmly; "and as she can reach
Montaignac by the other road, two men will accompany her as far as
Courtornieu."

She was obeyed. The carriage turned and rolled away, but not so quickly
that Marie-Anne failed to hear Blanche cry:

"Beware, Marie! I will make you pay dearly for your insulting
patronage!"

The hours were flying by. This incident had occupied ten minutes
more--ten centuries--and the last trace of order had disappeared.

M. Lacheneur could have wept with rage. He called Maurice and
Chanlouineau.

"I place you in command," said he; "do all that you can to hurry these
idiots onward. I will ride as fast as I can to the Croix d'Arcy."

He started, but he was only a short distance in advance of his followers
when he saw two men running toward him at full speed. One was clad in
the attire of a well-to-do bourgeois; the other wore the old uniform of
captain in the Emperor's guard.

"What has happened?" Lacheneur cried, in alarm.

"All is discovered!"

"Great God!"

"Major Carini has been arrested."

"By whom? How?"

"Ah! there was a fatality about it! Just as we were perfecting our
arrangements to capture the Duc de Sairmeuse, the duke surprised us. We
fled, but the cursed noble pursued us, overtook Carini, seized him by
the collar, and dragged him to the citadel."

Lacheneur was overwhelmed; the abbe's gloomy prophecy again resounded in
his ears.

"So I warned my friends, and hastened to warn you," continued the
officer. "The affair is an utter failure!"

He was only too correct; and Lacheneur knew it even better than he did.
But, blinded by hatred and anger, he would not acknowledge that the
disaster was irreparable.

"Let Mademoiselle de Counornieu pass without hinderance."

He affected a calmness which he did not in the least feel.

"You are easily discouraged, gentlemen," he said, bitterly. "There is,
at least, one more chance."

"The devil! Then you have resources of which we are ignorant?"

"Perhaps--that depends. You have just passed the Croix d'Arcy; did you
tell any of those people what you have just told me?"

"Not a word."

"How many men are there at the rendezvous?"

"At least two thousand."

"And what is their mood?"

"They are burning to begin the struggle. They are cursing our slowness,
and told me to entreat you to make haste."

"In that case our cause is not lost," said Lacheneur, with a threatening
gesture. "Wait here until the peasants come up, and say to them